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Thursday, 27 November 2008

More random and weird things

Trevor, Elijah and MacDoctor haven't noticed I've already told you seven random and weird things about myself -- but since Annie Fox told me my first lot of seven things were too boring (and no-one I tagged has bothered to respond), I guess I'll have to try again. So here goes.

1. David Lange lived at the top of our street when I was a kid, and rugby league legend Olsen Filipaina (and whanau) at the bottom. My friend at the time used to share a swimming pool with the Langes, but if David decided to swim it was very difficult to share ... especially if he decided to dive in!

2. Technically, I've played international sport for three different countries: for NZ, Australia and Great Britain.*

3. My Standard 4 teacher Neil Wood was an Objectivist, but I only found out many years later when he rang me: turned out he was also a 'Free Radical' subscriber, and he enjoyed my first article. Or so he said.

4.In 1985/86 I worked at the service station in Tinakori Rd, at the top of Molesworth St and the bottom of Wadestown Hill -- just where the bureaucrats used stop to fill up on their way home up -- just at the time Roger Douglas was giving them all the Spanish Archer. It was great to see them pull in grey-faced after getting their pink slips (I could sound awfully sympathetic when I wanted to) and then come in again months later having got theselves a real job.

5. I saw Manic Street Preacher Richey Edwards at the Astoria in his last gig with the Manics before he disappeared. (And this week he was finally officially declared deceased. R.I.P. wherever you are, you dumbarse.)

6. I once threw up in a Sheik's house after a twenty-four hour drinking binge (okay, the house was in Kent, not the Middle East; and the Sheik and his family weren't actually there at the time. But it did seem weird.)

7. I helped build Twickenham's East Stand -- true story -- and I confess, the first time I was there, which was early on a cold winter's morning, I ran down the touchline and scored a try. It was unopposed.

8. My 'uncle-in-law' Tony Tozzoli had an office high up in the World Trade Center (which I visited in 1990 and was awestruck by the experience), and his brother Guy, as head of the World Trade Centers Association, oversaw the building of the WTC.**

- - - - - - - - - - * As you've probably guessed, the sport was Aussie Rules. I played for Great Britain in Canada, for 'an Australian selection' in the curtain-raiser to a British final, and for New Zealand in Darwin. And in 1987 I broke my cheekbone playing for Auckland at the Basin Reserve.

4 comments:

I am one of those tagged by PC, and here is MY list of wierd and wonderful trivia.

FACT 1:I spent 14 months in hospital as a child due to receiving a kick in the leg whilst playing football.The bruise was so deep it infected the bone.

I was rushed to the hospital in the back seat of the family GP's Austin A40 after being diagnosed with severe osteomilitus, and operated on within the hour.I was told that another hour and they would have had to amputate my leg.

Whilst in hospital I broke my leg 3 times (crashed the wheelchair 1, Fell off my crutches - 2, rolled over something in bed whilst in traction - 3) so they put me in a full body plaster until I was sufficiently recovered.I was in full leg callipers for 18 months (but I could still play football in the playground!)I have a huge crater in my thigh as a reminder to thisI eventually recovered and went on to play representative football for many yearsI played top level football up to the age of 42, where I played in the same team as my eldest son.I have children aged from 5 to 29

FACT 2:I cant run for council because I dont have New Zealand Citizenship. Even though I have lived here since 1969, they still want me to pay $800 before I am officially a NZ Citizen.

FACT 3:Whilst on my OE I England, my friends and I were crossing the road at Camden. For some reason I looked down at the rubbish bin, where I spotted - half concealed by piece of paper - a plastic bag containing about half a pound of dope (about half a shopping-bag full)!

I had a quick look around me - grabbed the bag - stuffed it inside my leather jacket - and ran for my life - down the road, and down into the underground, followed by my friends who had no idea what was going on, untill sitting safely inside the train, where I revealed my little stash (not so little really)After much deliberation, we decided to burn it all!

FACT 4:When I was a kid living in England in the early 1960s, my fathers younger sister used to babysit me.She was a MOD at the time. She would take me to the Cafe where all her mates hung out. To keep me amused she sat me on the jukebox, where her mates would give me money to put in and chose the songs.When the ROCKERS invaded their cafe, she put me up through a trapdoor which led onto the flat roof out of harms way, where I could pelt those fighting in the carpark with stones.

FACT 5:The first song I ever learnt to play on the harmonica was "The Boys Light Up" by Aussie Crawl, Which I taught myself to play. Now I can play anything I put my mind to.I am now in the process of teaching myself to play the Button Accordian

"3. My Standard 4 teacher Neil Wood was an Objectivist, but I only found out many years later when he rang me: turned out he was also a 'Free Radical' subscriber, and he enjoyed my first article. Or so he said."

Sadly he died this year*. he had quote the collection of Objectivist literature, decades of Free Radicals, and folders full of "The Ayn Rand Letter" amongst other stuff. There is even a letter to him from The Objectivist Center (I think), thanking him for his letter but informing him that Miss Rand does not answer philosophical questions by personal letter. I would love to know what he asked.

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